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Archive for April, 2014

I'm not sure whether this was a move or a closing as the company is certainly still around, but Kaplan Test Prep And Admissions is no longer in this little building on the north side of Gervais. The rest is left as an exercise for the reader. Please use a #2 pencil only.

Actually, I am not 100% sure that the street address here is 122. 120 would also make sense. I'm also not 100% sure this was an ARCO station, but page 5 of this City annexation request makes me pretty sure that it was.

This Wikipedia article suggests that Southern ARCO stations were first rebranded as Atlantic Petroleum and then in 1988 as Sunoco, so this station may have been one of those before closing (though again, the PDF is indiciative).

UPDATE 2 May 2014 -- As pointed out by commenter badger, Google Streetview shows this place in operation as the SCE&G Flora Street Fleet Maintenance station, so I have added that to the post title.

This old school car wash on Harbison actually does have a clear view as it is half way up the hill that descends to Bower Parkway.

I'll admit that I never really noticed it until commenter Homer (and others) mentioned that it was gone. It seems a bit out of place on the current Harbison, where you would expect land to now be too expensive for such uses. Given the owner's retirement message on the sign, I suspect it had been there quite a while.

Personally, I've never seen the attraction of car wash scents. Whenever I forget to say no scent, I end up with watering eyes until I can clear it out again...

(Hat tip to commenter Homer)

UPDATE 14 September 2015 -- As noted by commenter Homer, this place has now been mostly razed:

UPDATE 14 March 2016 -- As noted in the comments, now open as Del Taco:

I would never go back to one, but there is something magical about a typewriter: the rhythm of the keys, the ding of the bell, the tactile sensation of the platten ratchet advancing while you slap the carriage back over.. Even the smell of one is distinctive, a unique combination of metal, stale air, oil and ink. And for something ubiquitous so recently there are few other things (the phonograph is one..) that illustrate the generational divide so clearly. Set a high school student in front of a typewriter today, and you might as well have supplied a blank cuneiform tablet and chisels.

The Typewriter Exchange had been on Two Notch for as long as I can remember, probably going back into the '60s. I often wondered in recent years how they continued on, but a look through their window suggested they had moved into computer repair as typewriters became paperweights. Although the building had been up for sale since at least 2010, the business continued until recently, but last time I drove by, I noticed the place is now a church.

UPDATE 29 April 2014 -- Here is the place today as Fruit Of The Spirit Love Ministry:

Commenter Homer noted the closing, and sent in a set of pictures here. I took these two sets of pictures several weeks apart. The property is currently up for sale as shown in this listing

(Hat tip to commenter Homer)

UPDATE 27 April 2014 -- An earlier version of this post assumed the owner had passed away. Happily that seems to be wrong.

UPDATE 8 February 2017 -- These photos are from commenter Homer, who says:

I've attached 3 new pictures from Tony's Party Shop. I thought they were
getting ready to demolish it but it turns out they have gutted it to the
bare walls and have been working on the inside of the part that used to
be the actual liquor store. There's no signage anywhere so I have no
idea what may be in the works.

This delapidated bar is on Bluff Road just south of I-77 on the banks of Gills Creek next to the old Diamonds strip club. The whole area has had a lot of recent land clearing, and since I took these pictures, a real-estate sign has been put up on the property.

I didn't see any street number on the building and so wasn't able to google it to see exactly what it had been. I suspect that if I had gone in, some of the notices on the door or something else inside might have given me a clue, but from the state of the place I figured I would need a hard hat and steel toed shoes to be comfortable doing that.

Some of the bar fixtures and chairs are still in there, but the stuffed animals are something of a puzzle.

Now, there is not a year listed, but we know that 30 March fell on Friday in 2007, and that "Burns Out Bright" apparently debuted in 2004 and "Skull Baby" debuted in 2003, so I'm saying this has to be 30 March 2007 and not 30 March 2001 or 30 March 1990. Therefore, I'm updating the closing date to "circa 2007".

UPDATE 21 August 2014 -- This place is not long for the world, as a demolition order has been posted. Interestingly, given that we never came to a firm conclusion about the address of this place, the order gives it as 3001 Bluff Road, so that is what I am updating the post title to:

I don't often drive the stretch of Alpine between Two Notch and Polo Road, but when I did last week, I noticed that Franklin D. Plumbing & Gas Co. Do It Yourself Center had closed (apparently after a final yard sale). I don't know how the restaurant equipment angle factored in, but if I had to guess, I would guess that this type of store has been hard squeezed by the big-box (and nearby) Home Depot and Lowe's stores.